Northern Beaches Hospital pitches peninsula lifestyle to lure foreign doctors and nurses

Northern Beaches Hospital is set to launch an elaborate recruitment drive to lure doctors and nurses from as far away as the UK and Ireland to help fill hundreds of positions at the new $600m facility — but a staff representative has give a reality check as to why the campaign could struggle.

Northern Beaches Hospital is looking to recruit doctors and nurses from as far away as the UK and Ireland. Picture: Craig Willougby

• Another new hospital planned for the northern beaches
• What the community thinks about the Northern Beaches Hospital

Northern Beaches Hospital is looking to recruit doctors and nurses from as far away as the UK and Ireland to help fill hundreds of positions at the new $600m privately-run hospital.

The recruitment campaign will promote the hospital’s first-class facilities and the iconic northern beaches lifestyle to lure high quality talent from overseas.

Doctors and nurses already working at the hospital will also be given a $1000 bonus if they find suitable candidates.

New recruits at the Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest. Pictured is registered nurses Jenny Breezier and Helen Leslie, emergency doctor Clare Earle and registered nurses Maddy Jeffares and Maria Shearer. Picture: AAP Image / Julian Andrews

A source at the hospital told the Manly Daily the recruitment campaign was one of the most innovative seen in the country, with most hospitals facing national shortages of full-time health professionals.

While the main focus is hiring talent from the local northern beaches community, the recruitment program will extend across Australia and abroad to countries including New Zealand, UK and Ireland.

“Working and living in the northern beaches for us is a huge bonus to attract quality talent from overseas,” he said.

The beaches lifestyle is being pitched to lure foreign Northern Beaches Hospital workers.

He added lots of nurses and midwives in particular want to work part-time rather than full-time, so the hospital needed more doctors and nurses, senior nurses and speciality positions over the next 12 months as they look to open all 488-beds.

The source said it had been difficult recruiting nationally due to the lack of affordable housing on the peninsula. “It’s hard to lure people from hospitals in Australia where they are settled, to somewhere like the northern beaches where accommodation is expensive,” said the source.

“We have enough people to service what we have opened but we want to open other areas in the hospital.”

“New Zealand, UK and Ireland have similar qualifications and systems to Australia, which makes recruiting from those particular countries a ‘relatively seamless process’.

“We want to make it as easy as possible to transfer from where they live to Australia. We are doing everything we can to make it straight forward,” said the source.

Brett Holmes from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association

However, Brett Holmes from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association said the biggest challenge for immigrants like Australian nurses would be finding affordable housing.

“One of the problems for Northern Beaches Hospital is that it is an expensive place to live,” Mr Holmes said.

“There is limited accommodation in the area.

“Many of the nurses working there are travelling from far western Sydney which is a great burden.

“The other group are English and Irish coming from Bondi.”

He said while there was a shortage of staff nationally, it was not yet critical and there were nurses available in Sydney.

However, he said the issue was about how far they were willing to travel to work.

The current number of beds currently open at the hospital stands at around 300, but in the next 12 months it’s looking to open the remaining wards on levels 5 and 6 and other services.

A Healthscope spokesman said it will continue to “ramp up staffing and services as part of our implementation plan, opening new wards and beds and recruiting more nurses to join our dedicated and expert team”.

Since opening in October, the number of staff had increased by 62 per cent.

The spokesman said recruiting had been “a considerable feat given that nationally nurse recruitment is challenging across both the public and private sectors.”

“In the coming months, as part of a broader Healthscope initiative, we will start offering opportunities to nurses from New Zealand, the UK and Ireland to further their careers at Australia’s most modern hospital facility.”